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In pictures: Country of kings, Nigeria's many monarchs

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http://www.bbc.co.uk...africa-24492437

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Which of the 11 American nations do you live in?

• BY REID WILSON
  
• November 8 at 1:36 pm
  

Red states and blue states? Flyover country and the coasts? How simplistic. Colin Woodard, a reporter at the Portland Press Herald and author of several books, says North America can be broken neatly into 11 separate nation-states, where dominant cultures explain our voting behaviors and attitudes toward everything from social issues to the role of government.

 

“The borders of my eleven American nations are reflected in many different types of maps — including maps showing the distribution of linguistic dialects, the spread of cultural artifacts, the prevalence of different religious denominations, and the county-by-county breakdown of voting in virtually every hotly contested presidential race in our history,” Woodard writes in the Fall 2013 issue of Tufts University’s alumni magazine. “Our continent’s famed mobility has been reinforcing, not dissolving, regional differences, as people increasingly sort themselves into like-minded communities.”

Take a look at his map:

 

Courtesy Tufts Magazine

 

 

Woodard lays out his map in the new book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.” Here’s how he breaks down the continent:

 

Yankeedom: Founded by Puritans, residents in Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest tend to be more comfortable with government regulation. They value education and the common good more than other regions.

 

New Netherland: The Netherlands was the most sophisticated society in the Western world when New York was founded, Woodard writes, so it’s no wonder that the region has been a hub of global commerce. It’s also the region most accepting of historically persecuted populations.

 

The Midlands: Stretching from Quaker territory west through Iowa and into more populated areas of the Midwest, the Midlands are “pluralistic and organized around the middle class.” Government intrusion is unwelcome, and ethnic and ideological purity isn’t a priority.

 

Tidewater: The coastal regions in the English colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware tend to respect authority and value tradition. Once the most powerful American nation, it began to decline during Westward expansion.

 

Greater Appalachia: Extending from West Virginia through the Great Smoky Mountains and into Northwest Texas, the descendants of Irish, English and Scottish settlers value individual liberty. Residents are “intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers.”

 

Deep South: Dixie still traces its roots to the caste system established by masters who tried to duplicate West Indies-style slave society, Woodard writes. The Old South values states’ rights and local control and fights the expansion of federal powers.

 

El Norte: Southwest Texas and the border region is the oldest, and most linguistically different, nation in the Americas. Hard work and self-sufficiency are prized values.

 

The Left Coast: A hybrid, Woodard says, of Appalachian independence and Yankee utopianism loosely defined by the Pacific Ocean on one side and coastal mountain ranges like the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas on the other. The independence and innovation required of early explorers continues to manifest in places like Silicon Valley and the tech companies around Seattle.

 

The Far West: The Great Plains and the Mountain West were built by industry, made necessary by harsh, sometimes inhospitable climates. Far Westerners are intensely libertarian and deeply distrustful of big institutions, whether they are railroads and monopolies or the federal government.

New France: Former French colonies in and around New Orleans and Quebec tend toward consensus and egalitarian, “among the most liberal on the continent, with unusually tolerant attitudes toward gays and people of all races and a ready acceptance of government involvement in the economy,” Woodard writes.

 

First Nation: The few First Nation peoples left — Native Americans who never gave up their land to white settlers — are mainly in the harshly Arctic north of Canada and Alaska. They have sovereignty over their lands, but their population is only around 300,000.

 

The clashes between the 11 nations play out in every way, from politics to social values. Woodard notes that states with the highest rates of violent deaths are in the Deep South, Tidewater and Greater Appalachia, regions that value independence and self-sufficiency. States with lower rates of violent deaths are in Yankeedom, New Netherland and the Midlands, where government intervention is viewed with less skepticism.

States in the Deep South are much more likely to have stand-your-ground laws than states in the northern “nations.” And more than 95 percent of executions in the United States since 1976 happened in the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, Tidewater and the Far West. States in Yankeedom and New Netherland have executed a collective total of just one person.

 

That doesn’t bode well for gun control advocates, Woodard concludes: “With such sharp regional differences, the idea that the United States would ever reach consensus on any issue having to do with violence seems far-fetched. The cultural gulf between Appalachia and Yankeedom, Deep South and New Netherland is simply too large. But it’s conceivable that some new alliance could form to tip the balance.”

 

Take a look at his fascinating write-up here.

 

RELATED: 19 photos that make you appreciate America

 

 

Πηγή: http://www.washingto..._facebook_bbcws

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What's it like to motorcycle solo through Iran as a woman?

 

 

 

Crossing the Dasht-e-Lut (or Lut Desert) toward the ancient city of Yazd. British travel writer Lois Pryce spent 60 days motorcycling around the country, on her own.

 

 

 

 

Murals, posters and banners of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Imam Khomeini loom over streets, parks and public buildings.

 

 

 

 

In Tehran, Pryce met the Iranian explorer Issa Omidvar, who motorcycled around the world from 1952 to 1962.

 

 

 

 

Everything you could ever need is for sale in Tehran's vast, labyrinthine bazaar.

 

 

 

 

That moment when Google Translate would come in handy. Outside main urban areas, many of Iran's road signs are in Farsi only.

 

 

 

 

Chadors are commonly worn by women in public areas.

 

 

 

 

Iranian streets are decorated with murals, from the militaristic to the mundane.

 

 

 

 

A warm welcome at a hotel in Shiraz, apparently Iran's friendliest city. Pryce found that, despite its reputation as an extremist state, Iran's people were invariably friendly and hospitable.

 

 

 

 

Two common sights of Iran: murals of the war "martyrs" and the ubiquitous Paykan, a vehicle also known as the Iranian chariot.

 

 

 

 

Salesmen ply their trade in the dusty streets of Yazd. Surrounded by desert in the center of the country, Yazd is renowned for its exquisite handicrafts.

 

 

 

 

A mural on a military compound in Tehran's Felestin Square commemorates "The Imposed War," as the Iran-Iraq war is known locally.

 

 

 

 

Fin Garden in Kashan, Iran's oldest Persian garden, was completed in 1590.

 

 

 

 

Outside the Shah's palace, only the legs remain of his colossal statue that was toppled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

 

 

 

 

A happy trucker. This pretty much sums up Pryce's experience with Iranians.

 

 

 

 

Pryce's route took her over the remote Alborz Mountains.

 

 

 

-- "You! You have moto, yes?"

An elderly woman, her craggy face peering out from the folds of her voluminous black chador, demands my attention.

I'm in the immigration line at the Turkey-Iran border and my heart is pounding as I wait to be stamped into the Islamic Republic.

I nod warily, confirming that yes, that is me -- a solo female with a British passport and a motorcycle.

I adjust my headscarf, fearing that my interrogator is a member of Iran's infamous "morality police," the hardliners instructed to arrest women for "immodest" behavior.

She jabs me in the chest.

"You come with moto?" she asks again, twisting an imaginary throttle and even adding a few "vroom vroom" sound effects.

I'm still not sure if I'm in trouble but her opinion becomes clear when she grabs my face and gives it an enthusiastic slap, before pulling me in for a rib-crushing hug.

"Very good! Very good!" she shouts while I gasp for breath among the folds of her chador.

"I am wishing you all the luck in the world!"

 

 

Finding the 'real' Iran

 

This enthusiastic welcome sets the scene for my entire journey -- motorcycling 3,000 miles around Iran solo and female, from the rugged northwest of the country to the Caspian Sea and over the remote Alborz Mountains to the fume-choked streets of Tehran.

My motivation?

 

Curiosity about the huge gulf between how Iran is perceived in the West and what I hear about it from the few people I know who have been there.

 

Often painted in the media as a terrifying place full of extremists, travelers who return from Iran invariably rave about how wonderful and welcoming they found the Iranian people.

I wanted to discover the place for myself.

 

Following some wild times in the capital, where it turns out you can get everything from contraband bacon to booze, I continue through the peaceful Zagros Mountains to the ancient cities of Esfehan, Shiraz and the deserts of the south.

Reports of tourists being arrested for espionage are in the front of my mind when, at one border post, I'm frogmarched to the police station to be fingerprinted.

 

But, of course, a people and its government are two separate entities.

Persian hospitality is legendary and I find myself overwhelmed with generosity and kindness from Iranians keen to distance themselves from the negative image of their homeland -- from truckers stuffing pomegranates into my panniers to complete strangers insisting on paying for my hotel room and an endless stream of tea.

 

 

 

The Alborz Mountains -- one of the larger challenges Pryce faced.

 

Challenging too

 

Of course, there are a couple of challenging moments, most often involving the police.

There are different kinds of police in Iran and on one occasion in Tehran a car full of plainclothes revolutionary guards deliberately drives into me.

 

On another occasion I'm assaulted at a remote desert gas station by a pump attendant who is probably on meth (quite common in the rural areas, I'm told).

Shouting, he lunges at me.

Luckily I'm still sitting on the bike, and after a kick in the right place I ride off as fast as possible.

But then I'm out in the desert with very little fuel ... a pretty scary scenario, too.

In fact, the very act of riding a motorcycle can be daunting in Iran as the driving can be insane.

Iran reportedly has the highest rate of road deaths and traffic related accidents in the world, so every morning I feel like I'm going into battle.

But the welcome from the people makes up for it manifold.

 

Curious and curiouser

 

I'm also a source of intense curiosity myself, especially as Iranian women are forbidden from riding motorcycles in public.

Foreign travelers are rare in Iran and the sight of a UK-registered motorcycle caused much excitement among drivers who would pass me with an inch to spare, blasting their horns while hanging out the window and filming me on their phones.

As I travel around I'm passed from stranger to stranger, who quickly become friends, and as a result, find myself mingling with a range of Iranian society.

 

My hosts range from underground filmmakers and the designer-clad elite of Tehran to a rebel-rousing schoolgirl and Iran's celebrated explorer, Issa Omidvar, who motorcycled around the world in the 1950s.

Iranians remain warm and fun-loving people.

 

Some areas off limits

 

Riding isn't an entirely free affair though -- travelers must take care not to stray into military areas or near nuclear plants and taking pictures of military or official buildings is a no-no.

For my project, I'd snap them quickly and then be on my way, reminded that the authoritarian streak is never far away.

Vast murals of the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei) loom over every street corner and everyone I meet has a story of police intimidation, arrests and the oppressive reality of life under the regime.

 

 

Where Google Translate would come in handy.

 

In the desert city of Yazd I'm invited to stay with an ex-army general and his family.

He fought in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and lost his legs in the conflict.

I'm wary of this invitation, wondering what I'll have in common with an Iranian veteran, but my concerns are unfounded.

He's far from the grizzled war-monger I fear and within moments of meeting he's cracking jokes and teaching me Farsi slang.

The highlight of the trip comes, unexpectedly, as we take the elevator in his apartment block to go out for dinner.

I'm learning the Persian numbers as we descend each floor and as we count "three, two, one" he announces in English, "It's the final countdown!"

We don't have to say anything. The two of us look at each other, laugh and burst into song.

"Da-da daa daa, da-da da da daa!"

This is the moment I know I'd been right to ignore the naysayers and to come and seek out the real Iran.

 

Neither East nor West

 

Iran has always prided itself on being "neither East nor West."

Geographically it stands between the two cultures, never aligning itself with either, making for the strong sense of Persian identity.

Sadly, the popular image of Iran today, fueled by the rhetoric of politicians means that the Iranian people are lumped in with Islamic extremists and terrorism.

 

This couldn't be further from the truth.

My travels unveiled a nation of sophisticated, kindhearted people eager to engage with the wider world.

If only their government would follow their example.

 

Πηγή: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/16/travel/motorcycling-iran/index.html